Show me your true colors

Screens accompany us from the first glance at our smartphones in the morning to a film at night. Producing sharp images requires light, color, and a great deal of sophisticated chemistry. Dr. Richard Frantz and his team from BASF have developed an innovation that enables brilliant colors with a more sustainable material foundation: In our interview, he explains how the new organic color-conversion molecules QDYES™ work.
Here you can listen to the interview in our podcast.

Portrait of Dr. Richard Frantz who is leading R&D for BASF’s Display Division.

Dr. Richard Frantz is leading R&D for BASF’s Display Division.

How does display technology work?
Dr. Richard Frantz: Light can have different wavelengths, and we perceive those wavelengths as different colors. In conventional LED systems, filters block the parts of the light that are not needed for a specific color. But blocked light is lost light and therefore lost energy. An alternative is quantum dots. They absorb light and re-emit it in the color needed for the display. In other words, instead of simply throwing unwanted light away, they help turn it into useful color.

Why did BASF search for a new solution?

Many established quantum dots use heavy metals, including cadmium. These resources are limited. They do not biodegrade and, if released into nature, can accumulate in the environment. This is why we have developed an innovative solution: our QDYES also create color through color conversion, but unlike quantum dots, they are purely organic and recyclable. They are designed to deliver high-quality color without relying on heavy metals. That gives the display industry another route, one that combines performance with a more sustainable material basis.

BASF Upgraded Organic Quantum-level Material, QDYES™
Photo: BASF

QDYES offer a new, more sustainable way to use quantum physics to make color.

Woman in front of a computer monitor with colorful design.

Will consumers actually notice a difference?

They will notice only the result: a brilliant image. The chemistry behind it should remain invisible.

What matters, however, is that the color on a screen can be created using a different kind of material. For consumers, this means the possibility of enjoying the same visual experience while the technology behind it moves away from heavy metals and becomes more sustainable.

That sounds like a clear win. Why did it take five years to bring it to market?

Because a promising molecule is not yet a product. In the lab, we knew we had a solution with real potential. But customers quite rightly asked whether it could match established quantum dots in terms of brightness and color consistency.

So we went back to the chemistry. We redesigned the molecules, made them brighter and improved the uniformity of the colors they emit. Then we returned to customers with new samples and asked them to test them again.

Scientists in a BASF lab doing tests with a colorful screen.

BASF teams have worked hard to make the QDYES market-ready.

Woman looking on the display of a mobile phone.

Screens are used in many applications, from mobile phones to televisions and watches.

Was there a moment when the team thought, “this may not work”?

There were difficult phases. Innovation can be frustrating: you see the potential in the laboratory, but the market is not yet ready to adopt it.

That is where the persistence of the team mattered. Our colleagues in Taiwan, in particular, worked closely with customers. They brought feedback back to us, returned with improved materials, and kept the conversation going. They were never afraid to knock on the door one more time.

And is that persistence now paying off?

Yes. One product based on our QDYES technology has now been qualified by a customer. Mass production has started, and products using this technology are expected to reach the market soon.

For the team, it is a significant milestone. It shows that our QDYES are becoming a real-world alternative for more sustainable display technology.

Dr. Richard Frantz has led R&D for BASF’s Display Division since 2022. He earned his PhD in Chemistry from the University of Montpellier, France, in 2001. After research posts at ETH Zurich and the University of Geneva in Switzerland, he moved into industry as a research scientist. In 2012 he joined the Swiss display start‑up Rolic Technologies, which was acquired by BASF in 2017.